History BA (Hons)

On Global Histories: Defining Moments we introduce you to historical events and processes from across the world and over the last two millennia which effected substantial change. In doing so, we will transform your perspectives by changing your views on the past, and developing the key skills required of historians. Here you begin the transition to becoming historians who are globally aware, chronologically informed, curious citizens as well as historians who are trained in the skills and methodologies of cutting-edge, independent research.

Our Lectures will focus on historical themes including commercial change, global diseases, religious change, persecutions, genocide and enslavement, rebellions, revolutions, wars, and others.

Your Seminars will discuss related case studies on which you can choose to complete further research for your assignment. During these Seminars you will learn to distinguish, weigh and analyse primary and secondary sources related to the case studies and assess how to deploy them construct an argument.

On completing this module you will emerge equipped with a broad geographical and chronological historical knowledge to inform your preferences for optional modules and your historical thinking throughout the course. Through the Seminars and smaller group discussions you will adjust to university, build community and lay a foundation in the transferable skills required across the course.

History Wars will introduce you to the different ways people have conceived of History and the ongoing debates about what History is and how it should be done. During the module we will transform your perception of what History is and how we make History. By the end of the module you will be well on your way to becoming historians equipped to redefine History and who are trained in the skills and methodologies of cutting-edge, independent research.

Our Lectures will focus on key themes in the way History has been defined and on key issues at the heart of how we do History, such as the relationship between the past and History, the nature of historical truth, the status of sources, the idea of facts or events, and others, opening a wide range of perspectives.

Your Seminars will discuss focused contributions to debates on these themes and issues by particular historians, examining in depth through small group activities.

On completing this module you will emerge equipped with a broad knowledge and understanding to inform your analysis of historians writing about particular times and places on your optional modules and for your dissertation. Through the Seminars and smaller group discussions you will adjust to university, build community and lay a foundation in the transferable skills required across the course.

Pre-Modern Movements allows you to study major social, religious and cultural movements in particular chronological and geographical contexts before about 1750, such as medieval Crusades and Rebellions or early modern Reformations and Civil Wars.

During the module you will think about how societies are organised and how social organisation relates to changes in religious beliefs or politics, or produces violence and oppression.

Along the way you will hone the skills you developed from Global Histories and History Wars in using primary evidence, analysing historical arguments, and constructing your own historical answers.

By the end of the module you will be well on your way to becoming historians who are chronologically informed, curious citizens, and who are trained in the skills and methodologies of cutting-edge, independent research.

Modern Spaces allows you to study significant cultural phenomena in particular chronological and geographical contexts after about 1750, such as conventions of conflict, ideas of the body, or cultures of leisure.

During the module you will think about how cultural assumptions arise and change in different historical circumstances, and what effects they have on people as individuals and groups.

Along the way you will hone the skills you developed from Global Histories and History Wars in using primary evidence, analysing historical arguments, and constructing your own historical answers. Through working with others to produce a group presentation you will acquire new skills in collaboration, oral and audio-visual communication, and responding to feedback.

By the end of the module you will be well on your way to becoming historians who are chronologically informed, curious citizens, and who are trained in the skills and methodologies of cutting-edge, independent research.

You now have the opportunity to pick an optional module to learn a new language or build on your existing language skills as part of your degree. You can choose:

• Subsidiary Language for Beginners (choice of German, Italian or Spanish)
• French: Intermediate Language Development
• Spanish: Intermediate Language Development
• Chinese: Intermediate Language Development
• German: Communication in Practice
• French: Communication in Practice
• Spanish: Communication in Practice

If you are on an Equal Weighting or a Major Weighting in History

History at Work will introduce you to the ways in which History is employed in a range of professional contexts – schools, museums, and the media – and provide you with experience of applying History to those contexts. During the Module we will explore the professional frameworks, government legislation, professional bodies, and ethical codes which structure the application of History in these contexts. Along the way, we will meet with professional practitioners to discuss their role, career routes, and experiences of working in these contexts.

Our interactive Lectures will focus on the policy and regulatory frameworks, confronting crucial problems in the intersection between education, heritage, the media, and equality and diversity.

Your small group activities will focus on dissecting those policy and regulatory frameworks, helping you to devise your own, improved professional framework.

By the end of the Module, building on the knowledge and understanding you developed in History Wars of how definitions of history relate to contexts and audiences, you will have a foundation to become a public historian who is professionally informed and experienced, having produced a real world, authentic professional document. This will prepare you for Curious Chester, where you will work to an external brief to produce a professional public history resource and reflect on your professional experiences.

On Rewriting History, you study an historical subject from a specific chronological and geographical setting. You will work with a members of staff to re-evaluate what historians have argued about those subjects, and to produce your own histories.

There will be a choice of subjects from which to select your preferences, which may include the following:
• The Vikings – A Local-Global Diaspora
• Witchcraze
• Fear City: Danger, Disorder, and Culture in the Modern Metropolis
• The Holocaust

During this module you will consider how historians have defined the subject, what they have argued about the causes and consequences of the subject, what evidence they have deployed to support their arguments, and how convincing you find their approaches and conclusions.

Along the way you will hone the skills you developed from Global Histories, History Wars, Pre-Modern Movements and Modern Spaces in analysing historical arguments, and constructing your own historical answers.

If you are on an Equal or Major Weighting in History.

On Challenging History, you will study an historical subject from a particular different chronological and geographical setting. You will work with a member of staff to re-evaluate what historians have argued about those subjects with a special focus on the primary sources, and you will develop your own analyses of those sources.

There will be a choice of subjects from which to select your preferences, which may include the following:
• The Age of the Black Death
• Europe in the Age of Reason and Absolutism, c. 1660 to c. 1780
• Seeking the Promised Land - Black America, 1865-1977
• Imperial Endings: Britain in the Colonial and Post-Colonial Age

During this module you will consider how historians have approached the subject and its sources, how they have used the evidence to support their arguments, and how convincing you find their analyses.

Along the way you will hone the skills you developed from Global Histories, History Wars, Pre-Modern Movements and Modern Spaces in using primary evidence and constructing your own historical answers.

By the end of the Module, you will be well on your way to becoming a historian who is chronologically aware, historiographically well-informed, and curious, and who is trained in the skills and methodologies of cutting-edge, independent research.

The Level 5, 40-credit modules require a basic foundation of knowledge of your chosen language e.g. GCSE or equivalent,  a Level 4 module in the same language or equivalent previous learning. This module includes an optional placement abroad, such as an intensive course at a partner university. You can choose:

• Advanced Language Development and Global Sustainability (choice of German, French or Spanish)
• Upper Intermediate Language Development and Global Employability (choice of Chinese, French or Spanish)
• Post Beginner Language Development and Global Cultures (choice of German, Italian or Spanish)

If you are on an Equal Weighting Minor Weighting in History

History at the Cutting Edge will engage you in analysing an unsolved historical problem with which one of our staff is engaged, opening up the historiography through the Secondary Sources to ask new questions and interrogating the Primary Sources to provide new answers.

You will select an historical problem from those on offer each year, spanning the pre-Modern and Modern periods. 

Our Lectures will draw on our knowledge and understanding of the problem to help you review what has been written, break down the problem into logical steps, and identify the relevant evidence.

Your Seminars and small-group activities will involve active, critical discussion and analysis of what has been written and of the evidence to develop new ideas.

Building on your experiences in optional modules across the Course, by the end of the Module you will have advanced experience in applying the skills and methodologies of cutting-edge, independent historical research and argument.

If you are on an Equal Weighting Major Weighting in History

The History Dissertation Module supports you to identify your own historical episode or topic on which to pursue an independent research project.

Our Lectures will focus on the main elements and steps required for a successful independent research project and poster presentation of the results.

Our supervision Tutorials will support you to apply those steps to your own chosen historical episode or topic.

Your project must reflect a thorough grounding in the relevant Secondary Literature and you must use an appropriate and significant range of Primary Sources in your research.

You may take a variety of approaches to the project, including: an in-depth historical analysis based on archival and Primary Sources; an historiographical approach based on extensive critical analysis of Secondary Sources; or an approach based on public or applied history, including placements.

After completing your independent project, you will produce poster presentations of your results to be exhibited in a final celebration of your research.

By the end of this Module, having applied the insights into interrogating historiography you gained from previous modules, including History Wars and Fake History and Conspiracy Theories, your experience of using Primary Sources to develop independent arguments from your History options, and your pursuit of an independent research project in Curious Chester, you will be an historian trained in the skills and methodologies of cutting-edge, independent research.

If you are on an Equal Weighting and Major Weighting in History

On the History Special Subject Part 1 you explore and study in-depth a specialist historical topic based on the academic specialisms of staff members.

• There will be a choice of subjects from which to select your preferences, which may include the following:
• The Norman Conquest 1066-1154
• Court and Culture 1363-1477
• Slaves, Samurai and Serpent-Gods: Empires of the Early Modern World
• The British Wars and English Revolution, c. 1637 to c. 1660
• Freedom, Rights and Justice - American Constitutional History Since 1789
• Beauty and the Blitz: The Battle for Modern England (1800-2000)
• Gritty City, Urban Wonderland: The Rise of the Modern Metropolis
• The Culture of Defeat: Weimar Germany and the Legacies of the First World War
• Genocide in History and Memory

This module enables you to develop a critical understanding of your subject, but also of ways that history can be delivered to an audience through an oral presentation.

By the end of the Module, you will have utilised skills relevant to a wide range of future careers including, but not limited to, those in teaching and heritage.

If you are on a Major Weighting in History

On the History Special Subject Part 2 you will continue to study the specialist historical topic you began in History Specialised Subject Part 1, placing greater emphasis on Primary Sources.

During the Module, you will develop a critical understanding of your special subject and its Primary Sources. You will also utilise digital tools to demonstrate how the subject and those Sources can be publicised to a wide audience.

By the end of the Module, you will have produced a digital resource for public and applied history, utilising skills relevant to a wide range of future careers including, but not limited to, those in teaching and heritage.